The mission of the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council is to significantly increase business relationships between our corporate members and our certified MBEs. We believe that minority business development is a key component of reducing poverty, unemployment, increasing wealth, and integrating American society. You are receiving this email in order to keep you abreast of developments with the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council, Supplier Diversity Issues and Minority Business Development. If you like what you read please share internally and externally. |
GNEMSDC Rhode Island Regional Advisory Committee Invite you attend... |  GNEMSDC Rhode Island Regional Advisory Committee
is pleased to extend an invitation to you to join us for an evening reception and a learning event on Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 6:00 - 8:00 pm at Amica (100 Amica Way, Lincoln, RI, 02865)
Our hostAmica, and along withBlue Cross Blue Shield of RI and a MBE company will present on how they joined the council and the benefits of their membership.
Please join us to learn more about on how we can serve your business needs and identify opportunities to strive your business to the next level. |
GNEMSDC Quarterly Meeting & Business Card Exchange | GNEMSDC Quarterly Meeting & Holiday Business Card Exchange is hosting by Citizens Financial Group Inc. Wednesday, December 7, 2011, Quarterly Meeting: - 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm Holiday Business Card Exchange: 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm Location: Citizens Financial Group, Inc. 1 Citizens Plaza (13th Floor) Providence, RI 02093
 About Citizens Financial Group, Inc.:
Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is a $132 billion commercial bank holding company. It is headquartered in Providence, R.I., and, through its subsidiaries, has more than 1,500 branches, approximately 3,900 ATMs and more than 20,900colleagues. Its two bank subsidiaries are RBS Citizens, N.A. and Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania. They operate a 12-state branch network under the Citizens Bank brand in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, and the Charter One brand in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. CFG has non-branch retail and commercial offices in about 40 states. CFG is owned by RBS (The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc). |
MBE Showcase from Trade Expo 2011 - Yumi Eco Solutions |  This week we feature Yumi Eco Solutions. Yumi Eco Solutions is one of our newest certified MBEs. Yumi Eco Solutions presented at the GNEMSDC Expo in October. This environmentally friendly producer of green products is poised to serve the growing needs of corporations throughout the region. Please take a look at their presentation.
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NMSDC/GNEMSDC Upcoming Events, Activities and Information | Please take a close look at the events listed below. The links will take you to detailed information about the events. We will have more information for those events that do not currently have live links, but please mark your calendars and call the office.
Events and Activities: - November 9, 10 am - 2:00 pm -Northeastern University, together with the Massachusetts State Supplier Diversity Office, is hosting a Networking Event for local Boston area businesses. This event will be held at Northeastern University, Curry Student Center, 2nd floor Ballroom, located at 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115
- November 10, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm - GNEMSDC RI Regional Advisory Committee Reception at Amica. (See article above)
- November 15, 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm - GNEMSDC and Boston MBDA Business Center Reception at Copley Plaza Center Court. Come and join national, state and local business and political leaders in this celebration of the opening of the Boston MBDA Business Center.
- November 16, 5:30 pm - Metropolitan District (MDC) Invites Hispanic Small Business to Event Discussing Contracting Opportunities. Free Seminar at Cora-Cora Restaurant
- December 1, 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm - GNEMSDC Holiday Card Exchange - CT Location to be determined
- December 7, 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm - GNEMSDC Quarterly Meeting at Citizens Bank, Providence RI (see article above)
- December 7, 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm - GNEMSDC Holiday Card Exchange - RI at Citizens Bank following GNEMSDC Quarterly Meeting (see article above).
- December 13, 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm - GNEMSDC Holiday Card Exchange - Boston, Sky Lobby, Copley Plaza, Boston
- December 14, 5:45 - 2011 We Are Boston Gala at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, 415 Summer Street, Boston
Information and Presentations: |
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Job Openings at GNEMSDC | The GNEMSDC is looking for a procurement professional with supplier diversity and entrepreneurship experience for the Boston office to be a part of our exciting new MBDA Business Center. This is a full time position. Interested parties should send their resumes to Joanne Wang at
The GNEMSDC is also looking for an administrative assistant for the Boston office. Interested parties should send their resumes to akim@gnemsdc.org
The GNEMSDC is also looking for a person to serve as an administrative assistant in our Hamden office. Interested parties should send resumes to Gloria Yopp at gyopp@gnemsdc.org. |
Boston MBDA Business Center Grand Opening! | 
The GNEMSDC is proud to announce the Grand Opening of the MBDA Business Center - Boston on Tuesday, November 15 from 3:00 to 4:30 PM at the GNEMSDC offices in Copley Plaza. Invited guests include MBDA National Director David Hinson, Regional Director Heyward Davenport. The U.S. Department of Commerce will also be inviting Governor Deval Patrick, Senators Scott Brown and John Kerry and Congressman Michael Capuano. Please see invitation
The Grand Opening is now completely SOLD OUT, but everyone is welcome to join us for a reception in Copley Plaza immediately following the Grand Opening.
Please RSVP by contacting Joanne Wang at jwang@gnembc.org. There will be a reception to follow the Grand Opening. |
Boston MBDA Business Center News - How Will the Center Benefit MBEs? | The new Boston MBDA Business Center will be a tremendous benefit to certified MBEs of all sizes in the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council. I would add that this includes MBEs in the Greater Boston area as well as MBEs throughout the region and country. The U.S. Department of Commerce has established some very aggressive goals for the Center in the area of increasing employment, contract dollars and capital flowing to MBEs. In order to accomplish these goals the Center will rely on both our corporate membership for opportunity information and our MBEs. Here is how things will work.
The MBDA has targeted MBEs with over $1 million in sales as being eligible to receive support from the Center. The Center is charged with the goal of increasing contracts between MBEs and buying entities by over $100 million per year over each of the next five years. Eligible MBEs will sign a agreement to become a Center participant. Participating MBEs will agree to go through a baseline assessment of their current business to help us understand the business and determine what support the participating MBEs might need to secure large contracts. The Center, along with its strategic partners, will help direct essential services to the participating MBEs while simultaneously seeking contract opportunities for those businesses. The baseline assessment will also help us in the evaluation of the Center's effectiveness. These assessments will be done every year.
The Center will also work with corporate members and public sector buying organizations. The message to our corporate members is very simple: the Center will vet participating MBEs for specific corporate opportunities. The goal of the Center is to work closely with buying organizations to fully understand opportunities and requirements. We will be asking buying organizations to provide specific information by category, size, timing, location, scalability, price points, quality and other requirements. We will use this information to present vetted MBEs to corporate buyers and supplier diversity managers. We do not expect corporate members to limit their choices to the participating MBEs, but we believe that we can provide corporate members with viable, competitive, high quality, high capacity MBEs that can perform on larger contracts. The Center plans on working with each buying organization to help them meet their minority business and small business goals. We are fortunate to have a large number of corporate members that have Federal contracts. Federal contractors are required to submit small business plans that include specifying their efforts contracting with minority businesses. The Center's connection to the U.S. Department of Commerce provide the Council with resources and leverage the Council previously never had. The Center hopes to use our relationship with our corporate members and our Federal partner to increase contracts for certified MBEs. We think that this is a powerful collaboration of forces to bring about success.
While the Center can only enroll MBEs with over $1 million in annual sales, the Center has a plan for MBEs with less than $1 million. There are three ways the Center will benefit smaller MBEs. First, the Center's search and identification of contract opportunities will inevitably come across smaller opportunities that are more suitable for smaller MBEs. We will provide that information to those Category 1 MBEs. Secondly, the Council is in the process of establishing a Vendor Management System (VMS). The VMS is a system whereby the Center can present a number of MBEs in a wide range of product categories to buying organizations as a single entity. Corporate members have responded favorably to the idea of one stop shopping for vetted Category 1 MBEs. Category 1 MBEs and others will also go through an assessment and qualification process. The MBEs who make the cut will be represented by the Council and the Center as smaller MBEs who have also been vetted. Category 1 MBEs will also be directed to resources that can assist in their development, with the goal of making them eligible for the MBDA program within a specified period of time. The third way the Center will assist Category 1 MBEs is in the messaging we will have for MBEs who are receiving Center assisted contracts. We will be strongly encouraging Center participants to utilize the Category 1 MBEs who are part of the VMS on second tier opportunities.
In addition to all of these plans, the Center will also identify sources of capital for participating MBEs so that they can execute contract opportunities profitably. The Center has several strategic financial services partners, including East West Bank, the Business Consortium Fund, The Small Business Administration, Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation, The Community's Bank of Bridgeport, Next Street Financial, Massachusetts Office of International Trade, and importantly, the U.S. Department of Commerce. Center Projector Warren Bacon and his team are busy contacting corporate members and MBEs. Corporate members are encouraged to open their doors, their minds and their opportunities to this exciting new program designed to develop MBEs, in effect becoming an extension of their supply chain management. Category 2 through Category 4 MBEs are encouraged to give the Center a chance to assist them, in effect becoming an extension of their sales team. We plan on taking MBE development to the next level with the help of this program. |
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